Roma- Part One

One roundtrip train ticket- 36 Euro

Dining- 50 Euro

Sunglasses for the unexpected sun- 10 Euro

Eating a margarita pizza in front of the Colosseum with your best friend from high school- priceless


Rome.

Where can I even begin.

Well, how about night one?

Ok, I’ll admit it. There have been many times in the past where I’ve been annoyed by Laurent’s ever-present camera. Hid behind my hands or whined that he delete a picture. Well, I would like to take this time to confess to the world (begrudgingly), that Laurent is smarter than I pegged him to for. Seven years later, I have to admit that I am actually quite thankful for the adolescent insight that lead him to capture what we would later look back on with so much nostalgic fondness.

While my computer has crashed, and friends have discarded or abandoned reminders of our teenage years as irrelevant or pointless, Laurent’s little Mac is loaded with arsenal- It is, in essence, the digital portal to my past.

Kudos to the kid with the afro.

You would think I would have better things to do my first night in Rome than to sit on a computer, but that’s exactly what we do, spending hours clicking through thousands of photos (most making me cringe), of every Christmas party, school dance, football game, and all the in betweens that made my four years some of the best, and worst, of my life.


His musical documentation is equally impressive, as his iTunes library holds all of the best and also most embarrassing songs of our past. Panic! at the Disco; Earth, Wind, and Fire; Keith Urban; Common; and the millions of other notes, lyrics, and interludes that sang us through our youth. They bring back such intense memories as the sound of boats at Groveland, the color of Katie’s hookah, the smell of my ex-boyfriends car.


Sure we took a breather at one point to get dinner and go to a couple bars, but let’s be honest, my first night in Rome was spent down memory lane.

But once that was out of my system, my full attention was turned to the incredible, ancient, world-altering city I was smack in the center of. Conveniently enough for my tourist purposes in Rome, Laurent and two of his roommates (Chap, short for John Chapman, and Sean), had an assignment to basically document one of Rome’s regions.

So when light hits, we are up and armed with backpacks, cameras, and our game faces. We also fortify ourselves with sunglasses and forties of Peroni (Cheap Italian Beer), as it is a gorgeous day and we are fully prepared to enjoy it to the hilt.

We have to make a quick pit stop at the girl’s apartment because although I know it’s completely out of character for me, I forgot to bring a blow drier or a hair straightener. Sorry people, tourists gotta’ look good.

But then we are off exploring one of the oldest and most influential cities in the world. As we walk down these beautiful, ancient streets, sipping our Perones and basking in the incredible weather Mother Nature chose to privilege us with, I think that I could not possibly be any happier than at this very moment.


We see where the prime minister lives, the president, the Pantheon, etc. At some point we stumble upon this little building called the Colosseum, you might have heard of it. Hungry from all our walking, we get a couple margarita pizzas and post up right on the barracks where gladiators once prepared to fight, and enjoy our lunch with years of history surrounding us.

We continue on with our journey and find a park overlooking a part of the city. There are a bunch of kids playing soccer (who I must note are really, really good), and Laurent comments that he hopes they know how lucky they are. And he is so right.

The sun is setting so Chap and Sean whip out their last forty and we once again settle and relax, taking in our surroundings. I am trying to absorb this instant in time forever.


There are moments in life (which I have just about every other moment since coming to Italy), where you have to physically stop and recognize how completely perfect your current setting is. You wish you could literally stop time and freeze this scene: the smells, the sounds, the precise way you are feeling that very second and live in the eternal perfection of that moment. But you can’t.

So you take a deep breath and a mental snapshot, and try to remember every single detail you can so you can catalog it and pull it back out of your mental library in the future. Probably when you’re feeling down and need a pick-me-up, and you pull up this snapshot in time and smile, thinking “ah, yes, when life was perfect”.


Despite thinking the day couldn’t get any better, it does. We get back to the boys apartment, and they have already bought all of the makings for carbonara. One of the girls on the trip supposedly makes the best they have ever had, and has promised to come over and cook for all of us.

So Colleen and Kara arrive, setting about filling the kitchen with delicious smells and a coziness that only comes from good people and good food settles over the apartment. (I will admit I dozed on the couch while all of this was taking place, but I was mentally very present and content with the event). The carbonaras is excellent, as claimed, and bellies full, our wine-buzz on, we are ready for a night out.

We go to a sports bar to watch the UW basketball game (which we lose by one point), and the night doesn’t end until finally, back at the apartment, somebody points out that the birds are chirping.